Garza scores 33, Iowa beats No. 19 Michigan 90-83

Michigan guard David DeJulius brings the ball up during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette via AP)

Howard, the first-year coach of the Wolverines, knew nothing about Garza before the season. But after this game, and the 44-point effort the center had against Michigan in Iowa’s 103-91 loss in December, Howard knows plenty.

“Very skilled basketball player,” Howard said. “He’s proven that he’s one of the best college basketball players in the country. All the work that he’s put in is definitely paying off for him.”

Garza enjoyed hearing Howard's compliments.

“That means the world to me to have a coach like that talk about me,” Garza said.

Garza, the Big Ten’s scoring leader, was 10 of 18 from the field and 11 of 13 from the line. He drew 12 fouls from the Wolverines, which was his plan all along.

“I was able to get low post position, get those guys in foul trouble,” Garza said. “They’ve got so many bigs to rotate at me. I just tried to get them all in foul trouble, soften (the defense) for me, make them go back a little bit.”

Iowa was 27 of 30 from the line, while Michigan was just 4 of 5, numbers that Howard recited after the game.

Howard, who had gotten a technical foul early in the second half, was asked if that was frustrating.

“Yes it is,” he said. “It’s very frustrating. I think that was the reason why I got the tech.”

CJ Fredrick had 21 points, Joe Wieskamp 20, and Ryan Kriener came off the bench to score 14 for the Hawkeyes.

Iowa (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten), which led by as many as 11 points in the first half, trailed 72-65 with 9:42 to play before going on a 13-2 run that included seven points by Garza and two 3-pointers by Fredrick. That came after Michigan had gone on a 17-4 run.

“We didn’t want to go out that way,” Garza said. “We wanted to get some stops and put together some good possessions offensively. Once we locked in on the defensive end, and put some baskets together, we were right back in it.”

“We seemed to be a little tired,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “We got the stops we needed. We were moving the ball, moving the ball, moving the ball. I thought CJ made some big shots.”

Eli Brooks broke out of a shooting slump to lead Michigan (11-6, 2-4) with 25 points. Brooks, who had scored just 15 points in the last three games while making just 1 of 14 3-pointers, was 9 of 17 from the field and 5 of 11 from long range.